Worse or Better Than Cruciatus
by Dalek Warrior
Summary: After Harry returns with the triwizard cup and Cedric's dead body he is taken to the hospital wing by none other than Severus Snape. Will Snape realize he was wrong about Harry? Will Harry make it through treatment? Will they have a discussion about boxers!


**Worse or Better than Cruciatus?**

_A/N: This takes place once Harry returns from the third task after facing Voldemort. Thanks for reading. _

Harry felt himself being pulled from the ground by strong hands; away from the sound of crying…from Cedric's body; away from all the mayhem that was taking place. Cry and struggle though he might, the hands would not let him go and led him farther away from the stadium. Through the tears in his eyes Harry could not see the man pulling him, but from the silence he could tell it was neither Dumbledore or Hagrid, who would be speaking to him right now, nor Moody whose artificial leg would have clunked. All of a sudden Harry realized whom the imposter was that Voldemort spoke of.

"Sir, there's an imposter at Hogwarts. I think its Moody!" Harry quickly spoke, hoping that the person who was half pulling half carrying him back to Hogwarts was trustworthy. When he spoke he didn't realize how thick and pained his voice sounded, though his companion did.

"Harry don't worry, we realized once you had returned with Mr. Diggory that someone here at Hogwarts must have changed the cup into a portkey. During the commotion which I just pulled you out of, the Headmaster was arresting Mad-eye. There is no need to worry." Severus replied.

At the sound of the potions' master's voice Harry pulled away from his arms. He couldn't believe that Snape of anyone would help him. Damn if he had just been tortured, he was sure Snape would merely have sneered at him and condemned him weak for not being able to support his own weight!

Severus seemed to sense his hesitation at accepting help and walked the boy a few more feet to a nearby bench that was situated along the passage to the stadium. Trying to ease him down gently he accidentally looked into the boy's eyes and saw Lily's eyes reflecting back at him, but he had been lucky to never see Lily in such pain. There was an agony present in Harry's eyes that made him question how he had ever gotten the boy this far. Severus had been tortured by the Dark Lord but it was obvious in Harry's eyes that he had never suffered to the extent that Voldemort had inflicted upon Harry tonight. His hair was sweaty and matted to his forehead, almost concealing the telltale lightening bolt scar, but through his fringe he could make it out almost red against his frighteningly pale face. There was grime covering his face and blood oozing out of numerous cuts as well as his nose and busted lip. When he looked down he saw a deep knife wound on his right arm and a deep wound on his left leg; his ankle looked swelled and slightly crooked, which would explain why he was limping on top of everything.

"Why are you helping me, sir?" Harry asked in a defeated tone.

"Because I should have been for a long time." Severus replied sincerely, looking Harry in the eye before deciding to check on his leg wound.

"We need to get you up to the castle, you're hurt and need medical attention."

"I thought Madam Pomfrey was back at the stadium?" Harry asked.

"She is, but from the looks of it you are suffering from both magical and muggle injuries. I am the only one qualified to treat you at the castle. And between us, do you really want her constant badgering?" Snape replied with a small smile which he was relieved to see Harry mimic.

"Here, put your arm around my shoulder and your left foot on my right."

After a minute or two of awkward handling, Severus had Harry in the correct position so he could support most of the boy's startlingly slim form and they did a sort of three-legged walk back to the castle.

They arrived at the hospital wing twenty minutes later. It was evident the journey had taken a toll on Harry. Severus mentally cursed Albus for not disabling the apparition wards as he took Harry to a private room, without a second thought he picked the boy up and laid him on the bed. The sudden movement elicited a gasp of pain from Harry and when Severus had finished laying him on the bed and looked into his face he noticed his eyes were closed in pain and he held his jaw firmly. After about fifteen seconds his face started to relax and his breathing evened out from short pants to a rather steady, albeit slightly labored, breaths.

"Harry I can't give you any pain potions until I heal your injuries. No one is quite sure how magical potions react with muggle injuries such as a knife wound. I at least need to bandage it and do a few diagnostic spells first." Severus told the boy sadly, retrieving medical bandages and sterilizing strips at the same time.

"Its okay, can't really get worse now right?" Harry joked in an offhand tone, not really achieving the goal he had in mind of relieving the tension, though Snape mentally commended him for the effort.

He was running what needed to be dealt with on the boy first through is mind. The knife wound on his arm was still bleeding and his breathing indicated a few broken or at least fractured ribs, he should probably treat these injuries first. Noting this, he grabbed some chest wraps. Better safe than sorry he thought. If you treated a muggle injury with magical methods catastrophe could strike and it was unlikely that Harry would be able to narrow down how he broke his ribs during the hectic night. Walking over to Harry's bed he decided he would take a more muggle approach to treating him, in addition to it being safer on most of his injuries, it was likely due to the fact that Harry had grown up with muggles that it would be more comforting, if that was even a remote possibility. Sitting down on the chair next to Harry he started peeling the flesh on either side of the jagged knife cut that mutilated his arm back together. Opting not to stitch the flesh back together he poured skin glue on it and quickly wrapped clinical bandages around it. He would need to attend to Harry's ribs next as his breathing was becoming more labored. He would have to get to Harry's chest to do this, deciding that being blunt would be the best option he spat out..

"I need to take your shirt off to get to your ribs, it's likely that a few of them are broken."

Harry looked abashed at the thought of being half naked next to the man who had insulted him half his life, let alone allowing him to touch that part of him. But he could feel the growing pain in his chest and knew that it would have to be treated, and for the life of him he had no idea how to do it himself. In the end practicality won out and he nodded to Snape. Severus motioned for Harry to sit up and put one of his hands on Harry's chest and the other on his back. In one motion he pushed Harry into a sitting position and heard the saddest moan come from his mouth as Harry saw stars cloud his vision in intense pain.

"Here, come on, hold me hand. Breathe through it." Severus coached. He grabbed Harry's hand and felt his strong grasp and he waited out the pain. After a minute Harry's hand let go and he opened his bloodshot eyes.

"The pain is going to be worse while you're sitting up so let me get you bandaged and laying down." Snape told him, his black hair framing his caring eyes; a sight Harry had never seen before and doubted many others had.

Severus lowered his hands to the hem of Harry's sweat and bloodstained shirt, and looked Harry in the eyes as if to ask his permission. Harry gave him a small nod and Severus pulled the shirt up over Harry's head and promptly chucked it in the bin across the room. Harry's chest was black and blue across his midsection but through that Severus could clearly tell Harry was an attractive young man. Despite the lack of chest hair, he had clearly defined ab muscles and his nipples were dark and erect at the sudden exposure to cold air. All in all, if Snape was a teenage girl, he would likely…to put it bluntly…be hitting that.

Despite being naked in front of his teacher Harry felt no embarrassment, he was in too much pain for that. When the cold air of the hospital wing touched his nipples he felt them grow erect, despite not wanting to become horny…especially with his present company…it felt nice to have a distracting sensation other than pain at the moment. He noticed that Snape saw his body's reaction to the temperature and flicked his wand at the torches in the room which all began to grow warmer. Snape's hands moved to Harry's chest and began to prod at his skin. Every once in a while Snape would mark a place on his chest with a sharpie marker. After the third time this happened Harry asked him what he was doing.

"Wherever there is a break or fracture in your chest I'm marking where I need to place wraps." He replied, though not in his usual subordinator tone, but in a more fatherly comforting voice.

His hands began to move from just above Harry's stomach to just in line with his nipples. Feeling and prodding his skin every few inches, he moved to the left side of Harry's chest and he let out a pained gasp.

"It appears this rip is a compound break, just hold on a moment while I find the break." Severus said consolingly.

He marked a spot two the right of Harry's left nipple. Looking sheepishly at the boy he moved his hands to the spot right over his nipple and pressed down firmly which brought forth a vehement exclamation from his patient.

Harry had been surprised when Snape first touched his nipple; nobody had ever done that before. But that emotion quickly vanished as he felt an overwhelming pain that constricted his breathing. He couldn't stop himself as he quite colorfully cursed, although it did achieve the desired affect as the potions master released his grasp.

"I'm truly sorry Harry, I had to do that." Severus quickly blurted out.

"Its all right. Just hurt." He gasped out, still breathing as heavily as one could with numerous broken ribs.

"Okay, that was the last rib I had to check anyway. Still gotta mark the break though, this one might tickle a little bit." Snape warned, although the embarrassment evident on his face of having to draw sharpie on his student's erect nipple could have fried an egg it was so red.

He tried to concentrate as his placed his hand on his student's chest. Thankfully Harry was looking away nonchalantly at the ceiling. There was no way he could have done this with him looking. He placed two fingers on either side of the sensitive nub and spread the skin down enough to pull the sharpie across it. Harry gave a small giggle at the sensation and looked away from the ceiling to see his teacher's face, after which he only gave in to laughing.

"What are you laughing about Potter?" He asked teasingly, still embarrassed about the whole ordeal.

"I'm sorry, your face is bloody priceless." He choked out through his laughter.

Severus looked at the boy's face and then to his chest. He could tell the boy needed some laughter after the trauma he had just went through and decided he could lightly tease the boy some more.

"Well, judging by somebody's chest. Someone in this room is slightly aroused and it isn't me." He said, his face smiling just enough to convey his meaning.

Harry glared teasingly at him for a moment before chuckling a little, enjoying their newfound relationship regardless of how it had come about.

"Sorry about that, I've always been a little sensitive there." He said shyly.

"Mr. Potter, if you can find me a teenage boy who isn't aroused by someone using permanent marker on their nipples then I will give you full marks on your OWLS next year." Severus replied, sensing that Harry was insecure about his body as most young teenage boys were and needed reassurance that he wasn't alone in experiencing newfound bodily reactions.

Harry gave him a smile, while he began bandaging his chest. After the first few bandages were wrapped tight he felt the pain that had been mounting in his chest for the last hour disappear. Of course their were other pains but he felt strangely giddy at the absence of one of them. Quickly Snape finished his bandaging of Harry's chest and was relieved to see Harry breathing normally again and his face devoid of some of the pain. He thought about giving him a shirt but in the end decided it was pointless as the room was warming up and he was so heavily bandaged that his modesty was safe.

Snape started to inspect the wound on Harry's leg and needed to remove his pants to get full access to the damage.

"Harry, I need to remove your pants, is that okay?"

"Um, sure. I guess…" He replied slowly.

"If you aren't wearing underwear I can leave you to change?"

"No, I'm good." He laughed off Snape's last remark.

The potions master moved his hands to the waistline of Harry's sweatpants and slowly pulled them down to avoid aggravating any unseen injuries. He made a point to avoid looking at Harry's underwear. Once the garment had been removed he sterilized the wound on his calf and carefully bandaged it. Afterwards he put an ankle wrap on Harry's sprained ankle. When he realigned it he was pained to see Harry's face screwed up in pain. Normally he would tell a student to grin and bear it on the unforeseen occasion when he would be called upon to heal a sprained ankle. But he knew that on top of everything that had happened to his Harry that the simple pain of realigning an ankle was nearly unbearable. Somewhere in the back of his mind his subconscious was questioning him on why he was calling the student 'his Harry', but he paid it no notion. It was obvious to him now that Harry was more his mother than he had known, and it tortured him that he had been so wrong and horrible to him all these years.

Looking away from Harry's now semi-relaxed face he went to retrieve a pair of pajama pants. Slipping the hem over Harry's sock-clad feet, he began the slow process of lifting up his legs alternately and slipping the pajamas under them. He knew he could of asked Harry to help but it was clear that he had no energy to do so. Severus's hands brushed against the light leg hair along Harry's thighs one last time before he was forced to look at Harry's underwear. He was amused by the choice his patient had made.

"Snitches. Really Potter?" And indeed there were golden snitches covering the expanse of the black boxers.

"They were on sale and I was coursed." He replied cheekily.

"Let me guess. Granger and Weasley?"

"Yep, still planning the payback." Harry said sneakily.

Severus couldn't help but laugh. He could so easily imagine the golden trio standing in Madam Malkins, Weasley and Granger badgering Harry to buy boxers. It was an amusing situation indeed. One he was happy that Harry had experienced. He finished pulling the pants over Harry's waste and took out his wand to cast a diagnostic spell.

Soon Harry could see the wounds on his leg, arm, and chest glowing a deep red, while his entire body momentarily glowed blue before all the color dissipated. He knew that the blue represented the Cruciatus Curse while the red represented flesh injuries. What he didn't expect was for a green glow to encompass his body for a flash before disappearing like the rest.

Severus was furious. He knew the bastard would use the Cruciatus Curse on the boy but the Manentem Agonia Curse! That was beyond cruel.

"That bastard!" He swore.

"Sir, what is it?" Harry asked.

Severus turned around to look at Harry. He hadn't been aware of it but he had been pacing the room while thinking. How would he tell Harry? However he did it he would need to tell him soon, before it started.

"Harry, did Voldemort use a sort of stunning spell on you that caused pain?"

"Um…yeah. He had just used the Cruciatus Curse on me. I tried to disarm him and he hit me with a green light and I was thrown a couple of feet, it was agonizing…at the time I thought it was the Cruciatus Curse but now that you mention it…" Harry replied thoughtful.

"Sir what is it? What's going to happen to me?" He asked, sounding worried for the first time that night.

"It is called the Manentem Agonia Curse, it is a sister to the Cruciatus Curse but it does not start until after you run a diagnostic spell and if lasts for around twenty minutes. It causes terrible waves of agony." Severus told the now terrified boy.

"It will likely start any time now, but it will end soon. Just remember that."

It looked like Harry was about to reply but was cut off as a wave of unimaginable agony penetrated his body. It felt a thousand times worse the Cruciatus Curse and his body jerked at the sudden change. His nerves felt like they were on fire, but he refused to scream. Through the haze of pain he felt someone grasp his hand and he held on like it was his lifeline.

Severus watched in horror as Harry's body jerked off the bed and he clenched his hands on the bed rails, leaving dents behind. His face was scrunched up and he was trying his hardest not to scream. He cast a silencing charm at the door and sat down at Harry's side, grabbing his hand. He felt Harry squeeze his hand with such intensity that he was sure that some fingers would break, but ignoring the pain he squeezed back and prayed to god that if there was some justice in the world that Harry's pain would end. A minute later the spasms and convulsions of his body ended and his patient opened his eyes, they were glazed over but focused. His hair was soaking wet and plastered to his face. Severus summoned a bowl of cold water and a towel and began to wipe the grime, blood, and sweat off of Harry's face. He looked grateful but too tired to reply.

"It will be over soon. You're doing so well, but its okay to scream Harry. I won't think any less of you and it will get worse. Don't hold back, just try to brace yourself." Severus told Harry, serving him up all the platitudes he could think of.

Before Snape could continue Harry grabbed his hand as he felt the oncoming agony engulf him. And this time he screamed, and he cried, and he held Severus's hand as the blackness crept up on him and he surrendered to unconsciousness.

Snape was relieved when after ten minutes of agony in one awful wave of pain that Harry fainted. He had been astounded when Harry listened to him and allowed himself to let go. He used the damp towel to wipe the tear tracks from Harry's face, tears falling from his own. Looking down at the boy he had once despised he saw someone he now regarded as a son. He retrieved a dreamless sleep/pain-relieving potion from the cupboard, taking the time to compose himself before enervating Harry. Snape sat down at his student's bed and prayed to Lily that she could forgive him.

He flicked his wand at Harry's still form and his green eyes blinked groggily up at him.

"You need to drink this, then you can sleep." Severus told him, only just keeping himself from crying at the sight of Harry's pained eyes.

Harry slowly drank the potion before the bottle slipped from his hands and fell onto the bed covers. He managed one sentence before his eyelids drooped and he fell asleep.

"Thank you Severus."

Snape smiled the widest smile he had smiled since Lily's death and sat by the bedside of his student the rest of the night. Vowing to be the father figure Harry needed, not just for Lily, but for Harry…just for Harry.

**A/N: Well, that turned out differently than I expected. I guess I am a fan of Severitus. Sort of almost turned into slash…oh well, maybe next time. Please review; I'll give you a cookie! **


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